Better medicines and diagnostics reduce deaths from breast cancer

The deaths of patients with breast cancer decreased 12% in 2012 in relation to the year 2000, due to both technical improvements in mammography and drug development, according to a report released today.

The study, presented by the Stanford University Medical Center and published today in the scientific journal of the American Association of Medicine JAMA, indicated that a greater variety of medications has been offered for clinical use, which has facilitated the treatment of this type of cancer.

These drugs range from “chemotherapy to compounds with a specific objective,” as the text describes.

Likewise, advances in mammography have facilitated timely detection in the early stages of cancerous tumors.

“We have moved from film-based to digital mammography, there are new molecularly focused treatments and new types of chemotherapy regimens,” said Sylvia Plevritis, a Stanford professor and lead author of the study.

Plevritis, director of the Stanford Center for the Biology of Cancer Systems, said that the decrease in deaths caused by this type of cancer in 2012 can be attributed “37% due to exams and 63% due to treatment.”

Using statistics and models of development of breast cancer, the researchers, divided into six teams, developed comparative tables of the effects of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, finding that these factors represented a 49% reduction in deaths in 2012, in comparison with a 37% decrease in 2000.

“New drugs, particularly those that are molecularly targeted, are associated with a greater reduction in cancer mortality, more than tests,” said Jeanne Mandelblatt, professor of oncology and medicine at Georgetown University, and senior author of the report. .

The analysis also highlighted how the best techniques to detect cancer in the early stages have led to less severe treatments, which has also reduced the side effects in patients.

The researchers showed their optimism to be able to continue working on new developments that will more effectively combat this type of cancer.

“This helps us think about the future and how to ensure that the technologies and drugs that are making the biggest difference are disseminated more widely,” Plevritis said.

More than 3.5 million American women with a history of breast cancer were alive on January 1, 2016, according to the American Cancer Society, which estimated that about 40,600 women died of this type of cancer in the United States. 2017. efe